Hispano Suiza Modelo: T49 Año: 1925

Hispano-Suiza, often written Hispano Suiza, was a company of automotive and engineering Catalan excelled in the production of luxury automobiles and racing, as well as aviation engines , during the period preceding the Second World War . Founded in Barcelona in 1904 , the company was acquired in 1946 by ENASA , a company established by the National Institute of Industry Spanish (INI), and its facilities of la Sagrera is directed to the manufacture of trucks Pegaso . On the other hand, their French subsidiary was acquired by the company aeronautics Snecma 1968 .

History

Background

The 1898 , the captain of artillery valencian Emilio de la Cuadra started the production of electric cars in Barcelona, with the name of The Block . In Paris , De la Cuadra met the prominent swiss engineer Marc Birkigt and hired him to work for his company in Catalonia. The Block built his first gasoline engine on the basis of designs of Birkigt. By 1902 , the property passed into the hands of one of his creditors, José María Castro -associated with the banker Vic and Girona - and became the J. Castro Limited . Factory Hispano-Suiza Cars, but this company also went bankrupt, specifically in December of 1903 . At that time, a group of investors led by Damian Mateu , Francisco Seix, and the same Marc Birkigt, decided to re-launch with a strong investment of capital.

Foundation

Finally, on the 14th of June, 1904, was founded in Barcelona the Hispano-Suiza Automobile Factory, SA, dedicated to the manufacture of automobile and located initially in the former site of the defunct company J. Castro, the numbers 54 to 64 of the calle Floridablanca. Along with Damià Mateu, the driving force behind the new firm was Birkigt, who assumed the technical direction from the moment of its constitution. That same year came out the first Hispano-Suiza, which was acquired by an argentine client, ^[1] and the new brand was presented in public at the Paris motor show . Their first year of life, the company had already sold two cars. The 1907 launched the world's first car with 6 cylinders, manufactured in the Spanish state .

In 1908 he moved the factory in La Sagrera, San Andres (in the present-day Park of the Pegasus ), where it manufactures the model known as The Sardine. That year, the company exported cars in Russia and South america . In 1910, the model Copa Catalunya win several competitions, such as the Ostend . Hispano-Suiza was the first manufacturer to Catalan to produce racing cars and soon started to get international successes, among them the victory on that same 1910 in the Coupe of the Car, the first achieved by a car of 4 cylinder in the biggest race of the season.

The king of Spain Alfonso XIII was interested in the Hispano-Suiza and he commends one, becoming a customer and shareholder of the firm. The vehicle that will be manufactured expressly it was very much like the Copa Catalunya, but with a larger engine adapted to civilian use. This vehicle was popularly known as the Alfonso XIII (the name that you put after that Damian Mateu in the request for authorization to the Spanish royal house). Over the years, other personalities such as Ava Gardner or Picasso acquired cars Hispano-Suiza.

The 1909 was presented at the Paris salon the H6, the first model with booster . This shook the other brands, including General Motors and Rolls-Royce , until they bought the patent. Rolls Royce we continued riding until 1968 . With one of these H6, Alfonso XIII won the climb to the Slope of the Partridges.

The French subsidiary

The stork, the symbol of the brand

The 1911 is created in France the Société Française Hispano-Suiza, with headquarters in Levallois-Perret . The Catalan company was fleeing the social unrest existing in Barcelona at the time and, in addition, it set in the heart of the european automotive industry, at the same time that this branch could better serve a market much more receptive to their products that is not Spanish. since then and until the outbreak of World War I , Birkigt in person prepared in Levallois, the Hispano-Suiza of competition, although developed in Barcelona continued in active service until 1922 .

In 1914, the French headquarters was moved to Bois-Colombes with the name Hispano-Suiza. The success of their solid motors, lifted the protests of the manufacturers French, which demanded that the Hispano-Suiza to pass a test of 50 hours of operation followed. The company has agreed, but provided that the French engines also passed. The French engines blew up within 10 hours, while the Hispano-Suiza held over two days. The orders began to rain.

At the start of the First World War, the French government forced the factory of Bois-Colombes to stop the production of cars already produce engines Gnome you Rhônne and other of French, for the supply of the new body of aviation. After the war, Hispano-Suiza adopted the symbol of the stork in honor of captain French Georges Guynemer , who had been a great success and popularity with the engines of the brand.

1916 , Hispano-Suiza also created a subsidiary in Guadalajara (Castilla - La Mancha) , as often happened at the time solely for political reasons, pushed by a Spanish government, always willing to try to industrialize the castilian plateau . 1918 , the company opened new facilities in the metal in Ripoll , in collaboration with la Farga Casanova of Campdevànol .

The Republic and the decline

With the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931 , Alfonso XIII went into exile and the Hispano-Suiza, which had, until then, represented a sign of distinction, it becomes a kind of provocation. The 1933 presents the model J12 12-cylinder engine with great acceleration and no noise. On December 7, 1935 died Damián Mateu , which speeds up the decline of the company started in 1931. The chair of the board of directors of the company then passed to Miquel Mateu . A few months after the civil war broke out and the Spanish Government of Catalonia colectiviza the factory.

After the war, the former owners recover the company, but the economy is in a recession and cars are a luxury product with little output. Finally, in 1946 the INI acquired the factory of La Sagrera to start the activity of the new brand ENASA, which begins to manufacture the trucks Pegaso.

Automobiles manufactured in Barcelona

Following the cars land manufactured in the factories of Barcelona (both of the street of Floridablanca as the La Sagrera).

Other products

In addition to cars and racing cars, Hispano-Suiza manufactured transport vehicles, aviation engines, aircraft and even guns. Among the patents of Marc Birkigt, it is worth noting precisely that referred to the armament. Among this type of products, one of the more manufactured -even in the factory of Sagrera, was the barrel 404 of 20 mm

Aviation engines

Once Marc Birkigt have returned to Barcelona at the start of the First World War, he received indications from the Spanish royal house to make an aviation engine, for equalizing Spain with other countries. Birkigt was convinced that the engine in the star newspaper (the entire engine rotated along with the propeller, the crankshaft was fixed to the base of the plane to improve cooling), so fashionable at that time, had reached its maximum of power and which could not exceed 150 HP.

Within the aviation engines designed and built Hispano-Suiza, highlights the type 8a , that in all its variants and during the First World War were built fifty thousand units, both in the factory of Bois-Colombe, and Wolseley Motors (Uk), Arsenal National (Russia), Mitsubishi (Japan) and others.

In 1914, the technical features of this engine were the following: Eight-cylinder V of 90 °, two overhead camshafts driven by tree king, built in aluminum alloy, bore X stroke initial 120 x 130 mm, and a displacement of 11.760 cc to 1,900 rpm, giving a power of 140 HP. This evolved until 1918 was 140 x 150 mm and 18.460 cm3, which at 2,100 rpm, giving a power of 300 HP.

The last engine designed was the 89 12Z-17 , one of twelve cylinders in V at 60 °, four valves per cylinder, measures 150 x 170 mm (36.050 cm3) and a compressor which gave up to 1,300 HP at 2.650 rpm. This engine formed part of the fighter aircraft Hispano Aviation HA-1109-J1L / K1L .

I must say that in France the aviation engines had the most development in Spain and that there is continued developing and producing many more engines manufactured in Spain, telling the motors in star license Wright (engines up to 18-cylinder in W and 4-cylinder engines in-line) until the end of reactor and components of aviation today, in which the company is integrated in the construction group aerospace Safran.

Aircraft

Hispano-Suiza E-30, the Aeronáutica Naval

Some of the planes most prominent made by the company were these:

• Hispano-Barrón , 1919
• Hispano-Suiza E-30 , 1930
• Hispano-Suiza E-34 , 1935